A Shift in the Air (7 page)

“
Ya don’t want to do this.
Not tonight. Not with me.” Liam struggled to his feet, wiping the
blood from his eyes. His left arm throbbed with every breath, and
he flicked a brief glance to his white shirt, now stained crimson.
“Get out of here. Now.”

Peter took two quick steps forward and
then halted when a warm current of air surrounded them.

“
Stop!”

Liam tried to move, but his feet
stayed rooted to the ground. A deep calm wove a net around him, and
he blinked at the woman he’d been unable to get out of his head all
day. Peter growled, “Bella.”

“
What?” Shite.
Bella?
The one woman he
could never be with. Why her? And why did she have to look so much
like Caitlin, the two could be sisters? “You’ve got a lot of
goddamn nerve coming here and charmin’ us.” He took a deep breath,
preparing to call for his alpha, when the charm faltered, and Bella
threw up her hands.

“
Please. I don’t mean any
harm, I need you, Liam… I’m—“

Disgust twisted Peter’s face, and he
bounded for Bella with a roar. Liam snapped the last vestiges of
the charm. He dove for Peter, sending him sprawling. Fingers tight
around Peter’s neck, Liam asserted his place in the pack. “There’s
been enough blood spilled because of her and the fire bitch. Get
out, and don’t come back until morning.”

“
Cade…needs…to know,” Peter
grunted.

“
Yeah, and I’ll be the one
to tell him.” Liam gave Peter another shake and tightened his grip.
“Understood?”

At Peter’s nod, Liam rolled off of the
man with a groan. Peter spit blood onto the grass in Bella’s
direction and took off down the street, his limp more pronounced
than ever.

From his seat on the damp grass, Liam
stared at the woman in front of him. Delicate shoulders shook. Her
plump lower lip jutted out, so like Caitlin she took his breath
away. Everything hurt, and the scent of his blood thickened the
air. Fig blossoms wafted on a gentle breeze, and Bella fidgeted
with the crystal at her throat.

“
Why are ya here?” Liam’s
knee buckled when he tried to stand, and Bella rushed forward,
wrapping an arm around his waist to steady him. “No,” he snapped
and pulled away.

“
Please. You need a doctor.
Let me help y—”

“
I can manage on my own.”
Liam stalked into the pack’s house with Bella’s lighter footsteps
tapping on the hardwood floor behind him. Blood dripped into his
eyes, and he stripped off his shirt and balled it up against his
temple.

“
Sit down.” The quiet
order, delivered with a tenderness he’d not expected from her,
shocked him, and he trudged into the dining room and fell heavily
into one of the chairs. “First aid kit?”

“
Kitchen. Under the sink.
Ye’re takin’ a risk being here. Do ya think I’ll protect ya after
ya lied to me?”

Bella rummaged through cabinets, and
water ran before she came back with a bowl of steaming water, a
towel, and the first aid kit tucked under her arm. “I didn’t
lie.”

“
Bullshit.”

Bella’s element stirred a lock of his
hair. Why did she smell so much like Caitlin? She pulled the shirt
from his hand and dropped the sodden material at his feet. “Neither
of us wanted names—or recognized each other.” She applied
antiseptic to the gash above his eyebrow. “This is going to sting.
I’ll try to lessen it a bit.”

He couldn’t let his wolf free; the
animal might rip apart the woman currently tending his wounds. And
the man needed her hands on him—more than any drug, more than his
next breath.

“
Close your eyes,” she
whispered. “Don’t fight what you feel.” A breeze perfumed with her
sweet scent and the sea surrounded him. Every ache faded, and a
gentle warmth spread from his chest, down his arms and legs, and
soothed the beast inside. Under her hand, his heartbeat quickened,
and he couldn’t help covering her fingers with his own. He wanted
to lose himself in her.

“
There now; that’s better,
yeah?”

Liam didn’t want to open his eyes. Her
touch, so like Caitlin’s, and her voice…he could almost pretend she
was here, alive, his. He grunted his agreement and let her tend to
him, wiping away the blood, pressing butterfly bandages to his
forehead, smoothing ointment over his scraped cheek and jaw.
Whatever she’d done held the pain at bay, and he wondered why the
elemental who’d helped kidnap Mara and torture Cade would want to
heal him.

“
I’m done now. You should
take something for the pain. My charm won’t last
forever.”

“
Liam? What the hell
is
she
doing
here?”

His eyes flew open, and he cursed at
the intrusion. Mara stood in the hall between the kitchen and
dining room, wearing a pair of blue silk pajamas and a robe, her
red hair damp around her cheeks. The humidity in the room
skyrocketed. “I couldn’t sleep…and I sensed something. Air. I had
to come see.”

“
Bella—“

Mara cut him off. “She
kidnapped me—with Katerina. She helped my sister torture and nearly
murder Cade.” She stared at their joined hands. “Holy fuck, are
you
seeing
her?
That’s…how could you?”

“
I’m not…fuck me. This
isn’t what ya think. We—shite. Mara. Ye’re my family. I’d never
hurt ya.” They’d had such a rough start—Liam still carried the
heavy weight of guilt over threatening Mara the day they’d met.
She’d run to her aunt’s condo, and Katerina had captured her,
charmed her, almost killed her.

“
Don’t be mad at him,”
Bella said, reaching for the crystal at her throat. “He didn’t know
who I was. And I had to see him. I think we…used to know each
other. A long time ago.”

“
What?” Liam sprang up and
grabbed Bella’s arm. Eyes that had once been purple now glinted
sky-blue, and a ghost stared back at him. Each breath came quicker
than the last, and the dizzying realization hit him in the
chest.

“
Caitlin.”

“
I think so. Yeah. But…”
She touched the crystal at her throat again, and Mara
gasped.

“
No.” Mara stumbled back,
hitting the doorjamb and sinking down to the floor “Get
that…thing…away…the fire…no.”

Liam and Bella—Caitlin?—turned towards
the water elemental, and Mara’s eyes flooded with pinpricks of
golden flames. She raised her hand, and her pale fingers glowed
until a burst of white-hot power pulsed through the room. Bella
screamed as Liam ducked. Shards of crystal flew outward, landing in
sizzling, molten drops on the hardwood floor. Bella’s knees
buckled, and she crumpled into a ball at Liam’s feet.

“
Get…Cade,” Mara whispered,
and then collapsed.

Chapter Six

Liam took a step towards Mara, then
glanced down at Bella, whose cheeks had faded to the color of fine
porcelain. She curled inward, wrapping her arms around her knees
and crying softly.

Cade burst into the room, snarling
when he saw his mate on the floor, flushed and gasping for breath.
“Mara!” He gathered her into his arms, and she clutched at his
rumpled t-shirt. “What the fuck happened?” The wolf shimmered over
the man’s face for a brief moment before he clenched his jaw and
leveled a steely-eyed gaze at Liam.

Liam’s duty to his alpha warred with
the need to comfort the crying woman at his feet. “Ye’re not going
to like it.”

“
Mara’s in pain. You’re
damn right I’m not going to like it.” In Cade’s arms, Mara groaned
and patted his shoulder.

“
Put me down. I’m
okay.”

“
Like hell you are. It’s
happening again, isn’t it?” Cade set her down and steadied her with
a hand against her lower back.

“
Again? Cade, what the
hell?” He’d missed something important. The energy in the room
shifted, and Liam took a step towards his alpha. The edge of fear
to Cade’s voice worried him. Mara’s pale skin and trembling hands
didn’t reassure him either.

Cade’s eyes shifted between blue and
gold. “You need to be around more.”

Peter’s fists had done less damage. “I
know. And I’m sorry. But…” A sob drew his gaze to the
floor.

Bella tried frantically to pry a few
shards of the red crystal from the wood. “I don’t want to remember.
I can’t...I want to be Bella. Please. Don’t make me be Caitlin
again.” Her eyes—Caitlin’s eyes—pleaded with him, and Liam dropped
to one knee and reached for her hand.

“
Ye’re Caitlin?
Truly?”

Cade grabbed Liam’s arm, hauled him
away from the hysterical air elemental, and shoved him against the
wall. “Bella? Katerina’s Bella? You brought her here?”

Liam stared at the ground. Challenging
Cade would only earn him a few extra bruises—even though he
probably deserved them.

“
Get her the fuck out of
this house. Now. Preferably with a broken bone or two.”

“
No.” Mara helped Bella
into a chair, where she dropped her head into her hands and moaned
quietly. “My sister had some sort of…charm on her. I broke it.
That’s why I had to call my fire—Katerina’s fire. It wasn’t Bella’s
fault. And she’s…it hurt her, too. She needs help.”

“
The hell she
does.”

Cade and Mara stared at one another
for several tense seconds until Mara rubbed a spot between her
breasts, and her brow furrowed. She glanced down at Caitlin.
“You’ve been near the house before, haven’t you? I’ve felt you.
Your element.”

Bella nodded against her palms. “I’m
sorry. You were in pain.” The muffled words paired with a gentle
breeze, and Bella peeked up at Mara. “I had to try to make things
right.”

“
What did you do?” Cade’s
voice cracked, and he reached for Mara’s hand. When she fitted her
body to his, the tension in his shoulders melted away.

“
Burnt sage runes on your
door. Quartz at the four corners of your yard to ease pain, settle
the spirit. I thought you could both use some peace after what
happened.”

Mara’s hand shook as she rubbed the
back of her neck. “Come home with us. I feel better there, thanks
to you, and I think we all have questions. None of us more than
Liam.”

“
What does Liam have to do
with any of this?” Cade asked.

Uncertainty roughened his voice.
Whatever Bella said next could break him or heal him. “Tell him yer
name, luv. The one ya were born with.”

Her tears spilled over. “Caitlin
Brannigan.”

***

Every step took her farther from the
pieces of the crystal that had protected her for eleven years. The
warm, reassuring blanket of Katerina’s charm gave way to an inky,
swirling fear that threatened to choke her. Liam walked stiffly at
her side. He’d retrieved his bloody shirt and buttoned it over the
smooth muscles and the scrapes and cuts she’d tended. Her charm
should have faded by now, and he grunted as he climbed the four
steps to the alpha’s house.

“
Let me—“

“
No.”

Fine. See if she’d offer to help him
again. She huffed and stumbled on the last step, pitching forward
until his arm shot out and drew her against him. Heat, a glimpse of
the wolf in his eyes, and she held her breath.

“
I’ve got ya,
luv.”

The promise in those words steadied
her, and she braced her hand against the taut muscles of his chest.
“I’m sorry.”

“
For what?”

“
I don’t know.” Fergus’s
face temporarily obscured Liam’s, and she gasped.

“
Caitlin?”

“
Don’t”—she backed away,
Liam’s concern twisting into shock. “I thought—shit.” The tender
moment chased away by a man she could barely remember, she turned
and rushed into the house.

As soon as they passed over the
threshold, the runes she’d carefully drawn in white smoke weeks ago
closed around them, and a hint of spice tinged the air. Katerina
had taught her well. The runes wouldn’t ward off evil—she didn’t
know how to cast those—but they could ease pain. Liam took a slow
breath and then rubbed his swollen jaw.

“
Did ya—?”

“
No. Yes. I protected this
house. You’re feeling the effects. But…I can take the rest of the
pain away for a bit longer, if you’ll let me.”

“
If you want to leave here
in one piece, no charms,” Cade said as he passed Mara a glass of
water.

“
I won’t harm you. I only
want to help Liam’s pain. I can do that…for a short
time.”

Mara gestured to the love seat across
from her. “Sit. I believe you. No elemental who’d set protection
stones around my house is going to try to kill me—especially not
with two werewolves in the room.”

Settling next to Liam took her back to
another time, a plush booth, a dark corner, an Irish reel played by
a live band. Nothing made sense. Her mind jumbled; sights, sounds,
and smells colliding together in a tornado she couldn’t escape. She
knew the man beside her, had cared deeply for him. She’d run.
Katerina’s voice. A white-hot pain in her palm. Staring down,
opening her hand in her lap, she rubbed at the scar—and kicked
herself for never noticing that the thickened, reddish skin held
the same shape as her crystal.